Nitrogen assimilation from amorphous detritus by two coastal consumers

Abstract

The food value of recognizable pieces of dead vegetation, morphous detritus, has been the focus of many studies in coastal systems. In contrast, the nutritional quality and formation process of amorphous detritus, aggregates of dissolved organic matter (DOM), is poorly studied. We created 15N-labelled aggregates from the leachate of four macrophytes, a marsh grass and three macroalgae common in New England coastal waters. We fed the labelled aggregates to two coastal consumers, the grass shrimp Palaemonetes pugio and the sheepshead minnow Cyprinodon variegatus. Fish and shrimp fed each of the labelled aggregates became labelled with 15N. This study provides direct evidence for nitrogen assimilation from amorphous detritus by marine consumers. In addition, fish fed amorphous marsh grass detritus assimilated 10–40 times more nitrogen from this detritus than from morphous grass detritus. Therefore, amorphous aggregates may be higher-quality food than morphous detrital fragments for coastal consumers.